Nazi treasure

A COLLECTION of Nazi treasure valued at over £500million pounds has been pinpointed in a Bavarian wood.But it cannot be excavated because the treasure hunter who has found it has fallen out with the landowner - whose permission he needs to extract it.Hans Glueck, 76, who has quested after the hoard of gold, diamonds, artworks and rare postage stamps for two decades - claims the owner of the land wants the treasure for himself.But without the map and coordinates he has obtained down the years, "he is as blind as a mole", says Glueck.He has lodged a claim with the German finance ministry to receive a reward of ten percent of the treasure's value should someone get to it before him.And he is appealing to the Central Council for Jews in Germany to put pressure on Berlin for a dig to go ahead - as property looted from Jews during the war is among the loot buried in old.In the dying days of the Third Reich SS chief Heinrich Himmler greenlighted for his brutal deputy Ernst Kaltenbrunner … [Read more...] about Treasure hunter finds £500 million of Nazi gold in a Bavarian forest but landowner won’t let him dig it up

A COLLECTION of Nazi treasure valued at over €560million pounds has been pinpointed in a Bavarian wood.But it cannot be excavated because the treasure hunter who has found it has fallen out with the landowner – whose permission he needs to extract it.Hans Glueck, 76, who has quested after the hoard of gold, diamonds, artworks and rare postage stamps for two decades – claims the owner of the land wants the treasure for himself.But without the map and coordinates he has obtained down the years, “he is as blind as a mole”, says Glueck.He has lodged a claim with the German finance ministry to receive a reward of ten percent of the treasure’s value should someone get to it before him.And he is appealing to the Central Council for Jews in Germany to put pressure on Berlin for a dig to go ahead – as property looted from Jews during the war is among the loot buried in old.In the dying days of the Third Reich SS chief Heinrich Himmler greenlighted for … [Read more...] about Treasure hunter finds €560million of Nazi gold in a Bavarian forest but landowner won’t let him dig it up

A TOP secret Nazi base in the depths of the Arctic has been found by Russian scientists after more than 70 years.The mysterious site is located on a remote island in Russian territory – more than 600 miles from the North Pole.Set up in 1942, a year after Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, the military outpost on Alexandra land was christened “Schatzgraber” or “Treasure Hunter”.The island was strategically vital to both sides during the Second World War because of its value in producing weather reports, according to the Daily Mail.The information that it produced was crucial for the movement of troops and equipment in the frozen north of the USSR.This was especially true as the brutal Russian winter set in that year, causing the relentless German advance to grind to a halt in the snow.And the island was all the more important because most of the other potential sites capable of producing polar weather reports in the region were held by the Allies.But the name … [Read more...] about Secret Nazi ‘Treasure Hunter’ base in Arctic found by Russian scientists after being abandoned over 70 years ago when crew was poisoned by polar bear meat

By pure coincidence, nearly 1,500 works of art were discovered over two years ago in the apartments of Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of Nazi art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt. Some were of high international status and questionable derivation. In November 2013, in the shadow of the discovery of that sensational collection in Schwabig, a district of Munich, three ministries in the state of Bavaria and the federal government's culture commissioner set up an official task force to clarify the ownership of the artworks found. The announcement met with great interest in Germany and abroad. Many had been appalled to learn that the state attorney's office in the city of Augsburg had kept silent about the accidental discovery for over a year and a half. Results thus far severely criticized The state of Bavaria and federal governmental officials promised rapid clarification. Stolen artworks were to be promptly identified and, if applicable, returned to their legal owners or their descendents. … [Read more...] about Task force investigating art trove inherited from Nazi collector achieved ’embarrassing’ results

All good things come in threes, the saying goes. In fact, Germany has put on three excellent exhibitions this year commemorating 500 years of the Reformation. In Berlin, "The Luther Effect" takes a look at international Protestantism. A special national exhibition at Wartburg Castle entitled "Luther and the Germans" examines the reformers' relations with his fellow countrymen. And now "Luther! 95 treasures - 95 people" has opened in Wittenberg, the main center of Luther's activity. Historic venue The exhibition is being held at the Wittenberg Augusteum, the epicenter of revolutionary change half a millennium ago, the place where the reformer taught, lived, suffered and loved. "The Augusteum is in the front of the Luther house. It's a university building that dates back to the 1850s," said Stefan Rhein, director of the Luther Memorials Foundation of Saxony-Anhalt and the show's curator. The exhibition spreads out over 1,200 square meters in one of Germany's best maintained … [Read more...] about Martin Luther’s influence told through 95 treasures and 95 people

The Swarm By Frank Schätzing, translated by Sally-Ann Spencer Regan Books (May 2006) What if the earth took revenge for the damage humankind has done to it? In Frank Schätzing’s intensively researched eco-sci-fi novel, scientists discover an intelligent life force that takes form in marine animals and uses them to strike back against humanity. The book has sold 1.5 million copies in Germany since it appeared in its original version in 2004. "The Swarm" was a best-seller in Germany Almost a Childhood: Growing up Among the Nazis By Hans-Georg Behr, translated by Anthea Bell Granta (August 2006) Hans-George Behr’s parents were staunch Nazis and he even got to shake hands with “Uncle Josef” (Goebbels) and “Uncle Adolf,” he wrote in his memoir. In “Almost a Childhood,” Behr captures quotidian life in Hitler’s Germany through the rudimentary yet frank perspective of a child. … [Read more...] about Translated Treasures: German Books Newly Available in English

They were found stacked up behind piles of expired canned goods and old boxes: paintings of inestimable worth. The case of these works of art will be handled by lawyers, along with museum directors and experts in stolen art called "provenance researchers," all of whom will be at work on the Munich treasure trove. For everyone involved, the discovery of the 1,400 works stolen by Nazi officials is nothing short of a sensation. In the history of post-war Germany, an art trove of such magnitude has never been found. Incalculable worth Yet as the German weekly news magazine Focus discovered, German customs officials had already searched and cleared the apartment of Rolf Nikolaus Cornelius Gurlitt two years ago. After a routine check during a train trip, Gurlitt first caught the authorities' attention in September 2010. In his apartment, they discovered a collection of art that took their breath away: paintings by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, by Marc Chagall and Max Beckman, as well … [Read more...] about Legal questions over Nazi-seized art

"No picture gets mercy," Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbel scribbled in his journal on January 13, 1938. It was a scathing sentence with disastrous consequences. Nearly one year later, on March 20, 1939, more than 5,000 works of so-called "degenerate art" are alleged to have been burned by Nazis in the courtyard of the "Old Fire Station" in Berlin. Nevertheless, it's not clear today whether this burning actually took place. There are no official photos of the event which, in contrast to the book burning of 1933, happened behind closed doors. Even Goebbels' journal revealed no clues about this infamous day. But art historian Meike Hoffman, from Berlin's Research Center for "Degenerate Art" at the Freie Universität Berlin, has a different opinion. "We believe that there was a burning. The Nazis were big bureaucrats, but they would not be able to cover up the arranged destruction of more than 5,000 works," she told DW. In addition there are no traces of the allegedly … [Read more...] about Conspiracies swirl in 1939 Nazi art burning

Splashed across postcards, travel guides and even Walt Disney products, "the castle of the fairy-tale king" lures more than a million visitors each year. Its instigator, King Ludwig II of Bavaria, was declared insane and later drowned a mysterious death in 1886. Weeks later, Neuschwanstein opened its doors to the public and remains a top tourist attraction in Germany today. But the fairy-tale fortress has its own Nazi past, illuminated most recently in George Clooney's World War II drama, "The Monuments Men." The film follows an Allied special forces unit tasked with protecting and tracking down Europe's stolen treasures during the Second World War. Eccentric King Ludwig II didn't construct the whimsical Neuschwanstein for royal purposes: He designed it as a hideaway from the public. In a perverse twist of the king's intentions, this is precisely what the Nazis did here with art plundered from their victims: hide it from the public. Hitler's orders "Search lodges, libraries and … [Read more...] about Neuschwanstein: A fairy tale darling’s dark Nazi past

One of the most spectacular art litigation cases in recent history is unfolding as descendants of Jewish art dealers sue the German government over Guelph Treasure ("Welfenschatz") items they claim were illegally appropriated by the Nazis. The former have successfully filed a case in a US court that calls for the treasure, some of which is displayed in a Berlin museum, to be returned the legitimate heirs. But the German government intends to appeal before the April 21 deadline. Jonathan Freiman, a lawyer of the German government, told the "Washington Post" that Germany would defend itself for the first time before a US court. According to the German government, the disputed treasure is lawfully owned by the state-supported Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK), which manages the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts in which the items are held, and must remain in the German capital. After the adoption of the lawsuit by the US court on March 31, 2017, Hermann Parzinger, President … [Read more...] about Nazi-looted art claim sets new test for Germany